Porter's Weekly Leafland Talk: Will The Leafs Turn Into The Marlies

Just three days away from the NHL's trade deadline, questions of who's going where are being asked across Toronto. One question that’s not being asked however is, who will fill up the Maple Leaf's roster for the remainder of the season.

Today I’m going to be the first to put this question out there. So for the sake of argument let’s assume that all the players speculated to be traded are in fact gone. Goodbye Kaberle, Kubina, Antropov, Blake, Ponikarovsky, Moore, Stralman, Finger, Stajan, White and Toskala.

With these subtractions the lines look bleak for Toronto and the only players that should bring back a roster player are Kaberle and Antropov so I'll go with the most rumored deals for these players to fit new players into the Toronto roster.

The rumored Kaberle deal shakes down like this:

Kaberle

To The Flyers For:

Joffery Lupul (the roster player)

James Van Riemsdyk

1st Round Pick

The rumored Antropov deal:

Antropov

To the Penguins* For:

Alex Goligoski

1st round pick

* This trade may be out of the picture because of the recent Ryan Whitney trade but it is still a possibility.

Forwards

Hagman   -------   Lupul

Kulemin Grabovski Stempniak

-------   Devereux ------- 

May      Mitchell    Mayers 

Defense

Schenn Goligoski

Van Ryn Sifers

Frogren -------

Goaltenders

-------

Joseph

The lines are bare for the Leafs with three openings at forward, one at defense and one at the goaltending position. Right away let’s get rid of the easy one, Pogge joins Cujo as co-starters for the Buds

Goaltenders

Pogge

Joseph

At defense there was a lot of depth but with Kronwall being pick up off waivers by the Capitals early this season and White, Stralman and Finger traded there is a gapping hole where young defenseman used to be. The Marlies have two defenseman the Leafs could call upon in Phil Oreskovic or Richard Petiot. Petiot has 14 points for the baby buds while Oreskovic is an impressive plus 18. Both men stand 6'3 in height, but the advantage will go to the defensively sound Oreskovic. The Leafs defense post deadline should look something like this.

Defense

Schenn Goligoski

Van Ryn Sifers

Frogren   Oreskovic

Up front is where the most open spots lie, with three open spots the Leafs should get a really good look at some of the talent playing for their AHL affiliate. Some might think an obvious call up is Jeremy Williams, but there is a very good reason why he won't be called up. Williams will have to go through re-entry waivers to join the Leafs and GM Brian Burke won't take that gamble with one of the club's best young players. Its likely shoot-out hero Tim Stapleton will remain with Toronto and Jiri Tlusty will likely be recalled. The final spot will likely be fought over between Alex Foster, Ryan Hamilton and Bates Battaglia. With Burke wanting to see what the future holds for the Leafs Battaglia will likely be the first name to hit the cutting room floor. After that the choice between Foster and Hamilton comes. Foster is having a great year with the Marlies scoring 28 points while Hamilton has a decent 19 points. Although Foster does have more points I think the spot will go to Hamilton, Burke traded away a good young player in Robbie Earl for Hamilton and he'll want to see if it was a smart decision. With those call ups the forward lines should look like this.

Forwards

Hagman Stapleton Lupul

Kulemin Grabovski Stempniak 

Tlusty Devereux Hamilton

May Mitchell Mayers

So with D-Day looming, I hope you've got some insight now into what the Leafs will look like after the hectic day of trading.